Here’s the only recent Green Line question from a reader so far, along with my answer.

Question:

As we approach another summer of stinging nettles (“jellyfish”), is there anything we can IMMEDIATELY do about them? I know about using less lawn fertilizer, picking up dog poop, etc., but those are long-range solutions. There must be some way of alleviating this painful nuisance in the short term. Millions of residents and tourists want to know: When will it be safe to go back in the water again?

Answer:

You can scrape sea nettle polyps off the bottom of floating decks in June and July, and remove the docks from the water after the fall, said Paul Bologna, director of aquatic and coastal sciences[1] at Montclair State University in Montclair.

But “we don’t know how effective just scraping them is,” he said.

You won’t eliminate the species, “but you’re hoping their numbers aren’t going to go out of control,” he said.

“I think the unfortunate reality is that they’re here to stay,” Bologna said this week.

[2]

A sea nettle (Source: Barnegat Bay Partnership)

Researchers found podocysts – precursors of polyps that eventually develop into stinging sea nettle jellyfish – in April, meaning they survived the winter, he said.

But the appearance of sea nettles might be delayed this year, possibly because temperatures were a little colder this winter and warming did not begin until recently, he said.

“This time last year, we were already seeing adults swimming in the northern part of Barnegat Bay,” Bologna said.

“I suspect that come mid-June, another four or five weeks, we’ll start to see ‘em again,” he said. “Last year, it started early and it was all summer long.”

“Unfortunately, little information is available about jellyfishes in the Barnegat Bay, especially with regard to blooms,” the report says.

Increased development around the bay, including bulkheads, pilings and floating docks, may be providing more places for the early life stages of jellyfish to attach to and reproduce, according to the report.

Poor water quality also may be increasing jellyfish populations, among other potential factors, the report says.

Bologna said sea nettle polyps won’t settle on pressure-treated or creosote-treated wood, but they love plastics such as vinyl.

He recommended using a scrub brush to scrape polyps off the undersides of floating docks.

“If you reduce those guys, then they don’t have the chance to produce the little baby medusas, which turn into the large stinging individuals,” he said.

L. Stanton Hales Jr.[5], director of the government-funded Barnegat Bay Partnership, said “we don’t know anything about the biology of polyps. To be honest, to me it seems a little premature” for a yacht club, for example, to spend the money to take a lot of docks out of the water.

Ocean County Health Department staffers worked with lifeguards to monitor sea nettle[7] populations at beaches and collect data, according to the report. Information was posted on signs hanging from lifeguard stands at beaches.

Leslie Terjesen, health department spokeswoman, said the warning system will be in place again this summer.